Tue, 20 Nov 2018 01:04:12 GMTTue, 20 Nov 2018 01:04:12 GMTMay 21, 2017--GILBERTSVILLE, Ky. – The Murray State University team of Zach Baker of Murray, Kentucky, and Micah Chessor of Paducah,Kentucky, won the YETI FLW College Fishing Central Conference tournament presented by Bass Pro Shops on Kentucky and Barkley lakes Saturday after weighing five bass totaling 19 pounds, 4 ounces. The victory earned the duo a $2,000 scholarship and an invitation to compete in the 2018 FLW College Fishing National Championship.

“This is an exciting win for our club – it’s nice to keep it in Kentucky,” said Baker, a senior majoring in Occupational Safety and Health. “It was a grind out there. We fought against some wind and waves, which definitely made things more tough. We just kept our heads down and fished.”

“We stayed on one ledge most of the day – a 70-yard stretch on the north-end of the lake at the mouth of Pisgah Bay,” said Chessor, a junior majoring in Wildlife Biology. “I found it in practice on Monday and the fish were stacked. I told Zach (Baker) that if we can get there first-thing Saturday morning, we’re going to stay there all day.”

“The ledge is basically a community hole,” said Baker. “The top of it is about 25 feet down and the bottom stretches to down about 30 feet. We just kept circling it and had a limit in the boat by 10:30 (a.m.), with our biggest fish coming in around 9:30.”

Baker said their biggest bass was caught on a Tennessee Shad-colored Keitech Impact FAT Swimbait with a 1-ounce head. He said their remaining four were brought in using a drop-shot rigged 4½-inch Morning Dawn-colored Roboworm Straight Tail Worm.

“We caught eight or nine keepers throughout the day,” said Chessor. “I caught some vertically out of the grass with the worm, and casted at them as well.”

“Patience was crucial for us,” said Baker. “We would hit a flurry of bites for around 45 minutes and then it would die off for around an hour. We just had to keep our focus and trust our instinct.”

This YETI FLW College Fishing Central Conference event at Kentucky and Barkley lakes was the second regular-season qualifying tournament of 2017 and was hosted by the Kentucky Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau. The next event for Central Conference anglers is their regular-season finale, scheduled for Oct. 7 on the Mississippi River in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.

YETI FLW College Fishing teams compete in three regular-season qualifying tournaments in one of five conferences – Central, Northern, Southern, Southeastern and Western. The top ten teams from each division’s three regular-season tournaments, along with an additional qualifier for every 10 teams over 100 that compete, along with the top 20 teams from the annual YETI FLW College Fishing Open will advance to the 2018 FLW College Fishing National Championship.

College Fishing is free to enter. All participants must be registered, full-time students at a college, university or community college and members of a college fishing club that is recognized by their school.

Courtesy of FLW Communications.

]]>Sun, 21 May 2017 08:05:07 GMTMay 1, 2017--RIDGELAND, Miss.--Severe storms may have caused the postponement of the final round of fishing Sunday, but nothing could stop Bassmaster Elite Series rookie Dustin Connell of Clanton, Ala., from claiming victory in the Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Elite at Ross Barnett.

Connell caught a five-bass limit weighing 12 pounds, 15 ounces today, pushing his four-day total to 64-13 and holding off a late-charging veteran Kevin VanDam, who ended with 62-10.

Hoisting the coveted first-place trophy overhead — and pocketing the $100,000 that goes with it — has been Connell’s dream since childhood.

“This dream was becoming a reality back in my college days, when I fished the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Bracket Challenge against Matt and Jordan Lee of Cullman, Ala.,” Connell said. “They fished for Auburn University, and I fished on the University of Alabama team. Matt went to the Classic that year, and now the three of us compete in the Elite Series.”

Jordan Lee won the 2017 GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods in March, and now with Connell’s Elite Series victory, the anglers who rose through the college ranks are proving their worth.

“I’m so thankful for the opportunity to get my start in big tournaments through the college fishing program,” he said. “It’s testament to Bassmaster’s seeding the future of professional bass fishing, and I’d say this to every college angler with a dream, ‘You can do this, too.’”

“I knew I needed to find something different and a long way from the crowds that would build on a smaller fishery like this,” the 26-year-old angler said. “When I arrived for official practice, I caught a 4- and a 5-pounder right away — and then I put my rods down.”

To save his bass for the competition days, Connell spent the rest of his practice viewing similar spots with his Lowrance sonar and GPS units.

“I caught probably 25 swim-jig fish on Thursday,” he said. His best five that day weighed 19-12. “But Friday was a turning point of this tournament. I didn’t have a fish before 10:30 because the Pearl River water rose and got muddier, slowing the pattern. I decided to go back and flip all of the same stuff, and I caught another 16 pounds in a short while. At that point, I knew I could win.”

“Today was definitely harder because of that weather system,” he said. “I really had to work for my fish, but thankfully I was able to catch two key fish this morning on a frog in a small pocket — locations that were critical for me throughout the week.”

Connell said winning an Elite Series event during his rookie season wasn’t expected, but something he’ll never forget.

“I can’t thank my family enough,” an elated Connell said. “They have supported this dream from the beginning, and to win one this early in my career gives me a lot of confidence that I made the right decision chasing after it.

“I love to fish. I fish every chance I get, and what I’m able to learn from fishing against the best in the world at these events is something I’m very grateful for.”

Brandon Lester of Fayetteville, Tenn., won the Phoenix Boats Big Bass Award of $1,500 for the 7-2 largemouth bass he caught during Thursday’s opening round.

Courtesy of BASS Communications.

]]>Tue, 02 May 2017 03:45:51 GMTCOLUMBIA, S.C. (April 2, 2015) – College teams from across the country will be heading to Lake Murray in Columbia, South Carolina, April 16 – 18 for the 2015 FLW College Fishing National Championship presented by the Lowrance Insight Genesis College Cup. Fifty college bass fishing duos will be competing for a top award of a Ranger Z117 with a 90-horsepower outboard and entry into the 2015 Forrest Wood Cup, the world championship of bass fishing.

According to reigning Forrest Wood Cup champion Anthony Gagliardi, who won the championship on Lake Murray, it will be typical springtime fishing at its best. “This event will hit the lake right at the heart of the spawn and bass will be in all stages. We should see spawning, prespawn and postspawn bass all being caught.”

According to Gagliardi the best targets are going to be the pre and postspawn bass. Popular baits expected to be thrown will be spinnerbaits and swimbaits. He went on to say that depending on the weather, herring-spawn topwater baits could play a factor as well.

“It’s not hard to catch fish on Murray but the one thing teams are going to have to be careful of is getting sucked into a pattern that is producing fish, but not the right size fish,” Gagliardi continued. “It’s hard to move when you’re catching 2-pound fish cast after cast after cast. But those are not the fish that are going to win the tournament. Teams are going to have to move away from those areas to go and find the 4- to 5-pounders that they’ll need to make a difference.

“It’s going to be a fun tournament with a lot of fish caught. Teams are going to be competing for the same water so having multiple productive locations will be the difference between winning and losing.”

Gagliardi believes that teams are going to have to consistently bring in 18- to 20-pound sacks to become champion. Back-up plans are going to be clutch. He cautions that one spot will not carry them through the entire tournament to earn victory.

Anglers will take off from SCE&G North Recreation Area at Dreher Shoals Dam located at 2101 N. Lake Drive, in Columbia at 7 a.m. Weigh-in will be held adjacent to Carolina Stadium at Williams and Wheat Streets in Columbia beginning at 5 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 4 p.m. Saturday (or immediately following the end of the University of South Carolina baseball game). Takeoff and weigh-in are free and open to the public.

College Fishing is free to enter. All participants must be registered, full-time students at a college, university or community college and members of a fishing club recognized by their college or university.

“It’s a great feeling to win this tournament,” said Flack, a junior majoring in Civil Engineering. “FLW has some really tough competition, even at the college level. There are guys out here that will eventually be full-time professional fisherman.”

After two days of practice, the duo focused on fishing the grass in the Fish Pond Drain area near the south end of the lake.

“We found a couple of isolated pockets we could get in,” said Hurst, a senior majoring in Mechanical Engineering. “The water was the right color and there was good grass, so we figured we would some find some prespawn fish.”

As temperatures rose throughout the day, the fish became more active which helped the team find their rhythm.

“We ended up catching most of our 12 fish on a White Trash-colored Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper,” said Hurst.

“We tried some other baits like a Strike King KVD jerkbait and Strike King spinnerbaits,” added Flack. “But the Skinny Dipper is what ended up working the best in the shallower five-foot depths we were targeting.”

“Our goal coming into this tournament was to qualify for the Conference Championship,” said Hurst. “We’re very excited to continue fishing.”

The top 15 teams that advanced to the Southeastern Conference Championship tournament on Pickwick Lake are:

This FLW College Fishing Southeastern Conference tournament was hosted by the Bainbridge Convention & Visitors Bureau and was the first regular-season qualifying tournament in the Southeastern Conference. The next event for Southeastern Conference anglers is scheduled for May 2 at Lake Guntersville in Guntersville, Ala., and is hosted by the Marshall County Convention & Visitors Bureau.

FLW College Fishing teams compete in qualifying tournaments in one of five conferences – Central, Northern, Southern, Southeastern and Western. The top fifteen teams from each regular-season tournament will qualify for one of five Conference Championship tournaments. The top ten teams from each of the five Conference Championship tournaments will advance to the 2016 FLW College Fishing National Championship.

College Fishing is free to enter. All participants must be registered, full-time students at a college, university or community college and members of a fishing club recognized by their college or university.

Courtesy of FLW Outdoors.

]]>Sat, 21 Feb 2015 07:56:03 GMTWHAT: The Bass Federation (TBF) and FLW, the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, have partnered to present the 2015 Florida State High School Fishing Championship. The tournament is open to any High School Fishing team in the entire state of Florida.

WHEN: Saturday, February 28, 2015

WHERE: Florida State High School Fishing Championship

Lake Toho

Big Toho Marina

69 Lakeview Drive

Kissimmee, Fla.

NOTES: The Florida state championship is a two-person (team) event for students in grades 9-12. Registration for anglers and their coach, who will provide the boat they compete in, is online at HighSchoolFishing.org. Takeoff will be at 6:50 a.m. and weigh-in will be held at Big Toho Marina, scheduled for 2:30 p.m. High School Fishing takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public. For more information about this event contact the TBF National Youth Director Mark Gintert at (580) 716-4251.

A preliminary list of schools participating will not be available as teams can still register up until the morning of the event.

The top 10 percent from each TBF/FLW state championship field will advance to a High School Fishing conference championship along with the top 3 teams from each of the six 2015 High School Fishing Opens that coincide with the 2015 Walmart FLW Tour. The top 10 percent of each conference championship field will then advance to the High School Fishing National Championship, coinciding with the TBF National Championship and an FLW Tour stop in the spring of 2016. The High School Fishing national champions will each receive a $5,000 college scholarship to the school of their choice.

“It’s a great feeling to win a tournament like this,” said Giella, who earned his first victory in FLW competition. “I had a lot of fun fishing out there.”

Giella spent his day on the south end of the lake fishing shallow docks and throwing up to the crayfish-filled banks. Using a Crawdad-colored Rapala Shad Rap, Giella boated his first two keepers around 9 a.m.

“The fish will pull up underneath those floating docks this time of year when it’s warm,” said Giella. “I don’t think I caught anything in more than six or seven feet of water.”

After exploring other spots in the same area, Giella returned to the docks. He switched his bait to an umbrella rig rigged with watermelon pearl-colored Berkeley Havoc Subwoofers. The tactic proved successful as Giella netted three more bass before noon to seal the deal.

The top 50 boaters and 50 co-anglers based on point standings will qualify for the Oct. 8-10 Regional Championship on Lake Sinclair in Milledgeville, Georgia. Boaters will compete for a top award of a Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard and $20,000, while co-anglers will fish for a new Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard.

The BFL is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 120 tournaments throughout the season, five in each division. The top 50 boaters and co-anglers from each division qualify for a regional tournament and compete to finish in the top six, which then qualifies them for one of the longest-running championships in all of competitive bass fishing – the Walmart BFL All-American. Top winners in the BFL can move up to the Rayovac FLW Series or even the Walmart FLW Tour.

Top anglers on participating team tournament trails from across the country will have a chance to win a national team title and a berth in the 2016 Bassmaster Classic berth when they compete in the team championship tournament Dec. 9-12, 2015, at Lake Guntersville.

“Lake Guntersville is a rich part of B.A.S.S. history and a great fishery to host our second annual Toyota Bonus Bucks Bassmaster Team Championship,” said Bruce Akin, B.A.S.S. CEO. “The Classic on Guntersville last year set several new catch records, and I know the lake will offer up plenty of big bass in this year’s team competition.”

The Marshall County Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) will host the championship at Lake Guntersville, which is one of the lakes on the Alabama Bass Trail. The daily launches and weigh-ins will be held at Guntersville State Park.

“We are thrilled with the opportunity to host this team championship,” said Katy Norton, president of the Marshall County CVB. “We have hosted other bass tournaments in the past but this is a team championship that really highlights tournament trails. To be able to hold this team championship just makes sense for us. It gives us a chance to show off our lake to tournament trails across the country.”

The unique four-day tournament will qualify one angler for the 2016 Bassmaster Classic. The top two-angler team will also be crowned as the national champion of the event.

Teams across the nation qualify for the championship through various independently operated team trails sanctioned by B.A.S.S. (A list of sanctioned trails is available at Bassmaster.com.)

“Toyota has a proud history of supporting competitions for bass anglers of all levels,” said Jim Baudino, Engagement Marketing Manager for Toyota, the title sponsor of the championship. “We’re especially glad to partner with B.A.S.S. to showcase the fast-growing team tournament segment of the sport and provide America’s outstanding grass-roots anglers a top-level national championship event.”

The team portion of the competition, Dec. 9-10, pits the two-angler teams against one another to determine the national team champion. On Dec. 11-12, the six anglers from the Top 3 teams will compete individually in the Bassmaster Team Championship Classic Fish-Off. The winner of the individual competition earns a bid to fish the Super Bowl of Bass Fishing the following year.

In the inaugural team championship at DeGray Lake in Arkansas last year, teammates Flannagan Fife and Royce Davis from the Fishers of Men circuit clinched the team championship title in their home state and advanced to the Classic Fish-Off. However, North Carolina angler Brandon Gray from the Anglers Choice team trail won the fish-off and qualified for the 2015 GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by GoPro, to be held Feb. 20-22 on Lake Hartwell out of Greenville, S.C.

For more information on how a team trail can become sanctioned for the Toyota Bonus Bucks Bassmaster Team Championship, contact Stewart at jstewart@bassmaster.com.

Couretsy of BASS Communications.]]>Mon, 09 Feb 2015 06:52:13 GMTLAKE HAVASU CITY, Ariz. (Jan. 27, 2015) – The Rayovac FLW Series is headed to Lake Havasu Feb. 5-7 for a tournament presented by Mercury Marine when as many as 300 pros and co-anglers will take to the water for the first stop of 2015 in the Western Division.

“The lake is fishing really good right now, and there should be a really good bite for this tournament,” said Walmart FLW Tour pro Jimmy Reese of Witter Springs, California, who has 20 top-10 finishes on Western fisheries in FLW competition.

“This is a tournament where you could have 10 different rods on the front of your boat deck,” Reese continued. “Anglers are going to have three main options to choose to fish. They can choose to fish the backwater ponds and sloughs up the Colorado River. They can fish the main lake and target the man-made structure and wood. Or, they can run down the river and fish in the deep water, coves, pockets and target the rocks and points.

“Shallow-diving crankbaits, pitching and flipping tubes and jigs, spinnerbaits and Yamamoto Senkos will all be popular baits on the river,” said Reese. “Guys fishing the main lake will be drop-shotting RoboWorms, throwing Frenzy Baits Umbrella Rigs, ripping jerkbaits and fishing Carolina rigs.”

Reese said that the winning angler would most likely have a few different patterns and areas each day, and that adapting to the conditions would be the key to winning the tournament.

“The weather will have a lot to do with it,” Reese said. “Water levels are down about a foot right now, but that could change overnight. The biggest factor in this tournament will be the wind. I predict that it will take right around 60 pounds to win this tournament.”

Anglers will take off from the Windsor Beach boat ramps at Lake Havasu State Park located at 699 London Bridge Road in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, at 7 a.m. MST each day. Weigh-in will be held daily at the marina beginning at 3 p.m. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public. The event is being hosted by the Lake Havasu City Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Pros will fish for a top award of $40,000 plus a Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard if Ranger Cup guidelines are met. Co-anglers will cast for a top award consisting of a Ranger Z117 with 90-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard and $5,000 if Ranger Cup guidelines are met.

The Rayovac FLW Series consists of five divisions – Central, Northern, Southeast, Texas and Western. Each division consists of three tournaments and competitors will be vying for valuable points in each division that could earn them the opportunity to fish in the Rayovac FLW Series Championship. The 2015 Rayovac FLW Series Championship is being held Oct. 29-31 on the Ohio River in Paducah, Kentucky.

Courtesy of FLW Outdoors.

]]>Tue, 03 Feb 2015 07:53:38 GMTLAKE HAVASU CITY, Ariz. (Jan. 27, 2015) – FLW College Fishing is headed to Lake Havasu Feb. 7 for the first of three regular-season stops in the Western Conference. A full field of college teams will be competing for a top award of $2,000 and a berth in the Western Conference Championship tournament.

“This time of year, there are a couple of different patterns that you can run on Lake Havasu,” said Strike King Lures pro Cody Meyer, of Auburn, California, a six-time Forrest Wood Cup qualifier. “The lake has a lot of big smallmouth and largemouth in it. I’d look for rock and gravel in the main lake, or possibly some scattered grass, and target the smallmouth. Anglers looking to fish for largemouth will be targeting the man-made structure.

“The man-made structure looks like a big jungle of plastic,” Meyer continued. “They are actually big cages made out of PVC pipe. The largemouth love to hang out there. If I was fishing the tournament, though, I’d be fishing the main lake and targeting the smallmouth because you’ll find some largemouth mixed in as well.”

Meyer said that jerkbaits, swimbaits, jigs and drop-shot rigs would all be popular baits amongst the college anglers

“Havasu can be tricky and it tends to get progressively tougher each day,” said Meyer. “With the Rayovac FLW Series event going on the same week, the key will be to have multiple patterns and multiple areas. I think a few teams will figure it out and that a 20-pound winning stringer is a definite possibility.”

Anglers will take off from the Windsor Beach boat ramps at Lake Havasu State Park, located at 699 London Bridge Road in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., at 7 a.m. MST Saturday. Weigh-in will be held at the marina beginning at 2 p.m. Takeoff and weigh-in are free and open to the public.

“FLW is proud and pleased to continue its partnership with Z-Man Baits,” said Patterson Leeth, FLW vice president of marketing. “They have been a fantastic long-standing partner and we are excited to have them with us for the 2015 tournament season.”

As part of the agreement, Z-Man Fishing Products will receive exposure across multiple FLW media platforms including its websites, tournaments and expos, social media and FLW Bass Fishing magazine.

“One of our primary goals is to expose the most avid participants in bass fishing to our latest ElaZtech bait designs and newest ChatterBait models,” said Daniel Nussbaum, vice president of Z-Man Fishing Products. “Our relationship with FLW allows us to speak directly to the most diehard bass anglers through a variety of channels.”

For nearly three decades, the Charleston, South Carolina-based company has enjoyed a strong presence on the tournament-fishing circuit. Their products like the ChatterBait, ElaZtech plastic baits, and EZ silicone skirts, all continue to be favorites among winning tournament anglers and there are very few anglers who don’t recognize the Z-Man brand. Z-Man continues to work with some of the leading professional bass anglers and saltwater pros to develop some of the most innovative and eye-catching soft plastics on the market.

ABOUT Z-MAN FISHING PRODUCTS

For more than 25 years, Charleston, SC-based Z-Man Fishing Products has prided itself on bringing technology to anglers. Z-Man has long been one of the industry’s largest suppliers of silicone skirt material, but until recently the Z-Man name was unknown to many fishermen. Today, Z-Man’s amazing 10X Tough ElaZtech® soft plastics and Original ChatterBait® brand bladed jigs are among the world’s premier fresh- and saltwater baits, positioning the company as one of the fastest-growing lure brands in the US.

ABOUT FLW

FLW is the industry’s premier tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money nationwide in 2015 over the course of 240 tournaments across five tournament circuits, four of which provide an avenue to the sport’s richest payday and most coveted championship trophy – the Forrest Wood Cup. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW" television show and is broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoors-sports television show in the world. For more information about FLW visit FLWFishing.com and look for FLW on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.